I was being a little exaggeratory on the 'first date' specifically, but there is 100% a subculture of 'normies' who care about things like that. The iPhone, and even the amount of cameras on your iPhone, became a status symbol.

Apple knows it, it's why they do everything they can to prevent 3rd party 'workarounds' to use iMessage. It's one of the things that gets people in the ecosystem, and keeps people in the ecosystem once they're in.

Blue bubbles and Facetime has probably kept more customers than anything else they have

I haven't heard of people losing a first date, but I remember a few years ago seeing articles about teens being excluded from group chats if they were using an Android because it was considered something you'd only buy if you couldn't afford an iphone. Android and iphone also didn't share the same features for texting, so people didn't want Android users in their chat because it meant they couldn't use all the imessage features.

I’ve met people like this. “Oh, green bubbles - I don’t know what I expected” / “I didn’t realise he was poor”. It’s 100% a thing for some people.

People have preferences. Some preferences are shallow. That's it, really. All kinds of people exist in this world, and wanting to be perceived as high-status is practically quintessential human behaviour.